How to deal with eBay and spiteful buyers?

[orb85750]

If I were you, I would try experimenting with FREE shipping on some of your auctions.  You might find that it attracts more bidders and higher bids.  And your ratings will become stellar!

[Ideal]

arnljot wrote:
I understand your frustration redrumloa, but I noticed that you don´t mention the 1-5$ handling fee in your listings. So I imagine that it can be  a small surprise for some buyers.

Also Redrumloa knows how to get paid, and seems to be raking in the dosh, so I don't see why he has to charge a handling fee. It's silly when you are charging 185USD for an old commodore floppy drive. When you are at that price level I think it is a bit rude to charge for handling.

[Fingers]

I recently sold a few items on eBay.

Each item was sent the very day after payment was received, each item was sent Express Post (next day delivery) & for each item I charged less than the actual postage cost.

I could tell from my ratings after feedback was received that none of the buyers gave me top marks for postage time, nor for postage cost!

WTF? Next day delivery & I picked up some of the postage cost & they still did that! WHY? :pissed:

PZ.

[redrumloa]

Ideal wrote:
Also Redrumloa knows how to get paid, and seems to be raking in the dosh, so I don't see why he has to charge a handling fee.  

Unlike most of the knuckleheads trading out there, I ship properly. Most items ship in a new box with proper packing material (packing peanuts, bubble wrap, antistatic bags etc). I don't throw things in a crushed, dirty used box with no packing material and then tell the buyer to F themselves when it shows up in a thousand pieces.

I don't run a charity.

[Metalguy66]

Yeah their new ratings system really sucks major a$$.. I don't know what they think they are trying to do, but they damn sure are not providing much incentive to sellers these days....  

Typically in the past, It seems to me that regular sellers are concerned with their ratings, and tend to cause the least problems of anyone on ebay.. They have the most to loose, when you think about it.. It makes no sense to me that ebay would create this new extremely buyer-biased ratings system....  

I tend to be sympathetiic to the seller... Unless they just out-right rip me off, I will alwayse give the highest possible feedback ratings in every area. I would hope that the average intelligent person would do the same for me, seeing how rediculously unfair the new ratings system is..

[Plaz]

If I were you, I would try experimenting with FREE shipping on some of your auctions.

That depends on the margin you're making on an item. Here's a very crude, but not unrealistic example. What if I or Red spend $100 on a item. We then turn and sell it for $185. We have to also factor in shipping supplies, shipping cost, ebay fees, paypal fees, maybe insurance and additional options like delivery confirmation or signature deliveries. Now the item has cost us $100 plus maybe another $30 for all those other items (especially if it weighs more than a few pounds when boxed) leaving a margin of $50. Now add in the fact it took a few hours to test the item, clean it up, take photos, arange the ebay listing, pack the item well, and deliver it to a shipper. Now what's your hourly pay rate going to be minus your rent and taxes if you're self employed? $12-15 dollars an hour? A smaller but respectable wage in the US.

If your margin is small, and mine normally is on old equipment, giving away $10-$20 in shipping will drop the gain to below my trouble to deal with it.  My last auction on ebay just 2 weeks ago was like this. My cost was about $14, it then took about 2 hours clean test and pack the item. I sold it for $37 and the shipping cost came to about $16. The buyer complained about shipping cost and wanted me to ship for free. That would have payed me a whopping $3.50 an hour to sell this item. I might as well throw it in the bin and spend my time on some thing else. In the end I found a cheaper shipping option for $11, the buyer paid and all was well, sort of. The buyer then complained the cheaper shipping option was taking to long to arrive and wanted his money back if it didn't arrive by the end of the week. It did, and all was well. I have 4 more or these items, they're going in the bin and ebay can bite me.

Plaz

[stefcep2]

Red, Welcome to the world of "the customer is always right".  I would've thought living in the free-market capital of the world ie the USA you would know it.  I have worked in retail and the reality is that the customer is more often than not a pain in the backside, because they actually believe they ARE always right.  Go to any departments stores and you see people return goods after they've broken them, clothes after they've worn them, wasting the salesperson time for advice and support only to buy off someone who is a little cheaper BECAUSE that merchant doesn't employ and pay for knowledgeable sales people).  Maybe you yourself have been a PIA customer somewhere.  what you are experiencing is merely a reflection of what is happening in the broader society.  It ain't right but thats the logical endpoint when "the customer is always right" ie the customer ends up being unreasonable.  And consumer laws in Australia anyway, encourage this nonsense with little support for merchants but total support for consumers.

[redrumloa]

@stefcep2

You are 100% correct, except that I know it well alright. I'm just not your typical retailer in that I don't care about venting on a forum :-)

I've had a few buyers lately claim their item is DOA. When I aplogize and tell them return it and I will send them a working item after I get theirs back and verify the problem, they dissapear. Seems to be exactly what Plaz mentioned, trying to get something for nothing.

[ChuckT]

Red,

I believe the solution is to raise prices because the people who complain are probably those who can't afford it anyway and raising prices would help you recoup and to keep the bad people away because those who can afford it will renegotiate or not complain.

Another solution is to add a commentary in your sale in plain English that you sell good products and you pack items professionally and there have recently been abuses in the rating system and that you are doing everything that you can to be fair to everyone.

ChuckT

[redrumloa]

I believe the solution is to raise prices because the people who complain are probably those who can't afford it anyway and raising prices would help you recoup and to keep the bad people away because those who can afford it will renegotiate or not complain.

Sounds like a plan  :-D

-Edit-
I actually did that once with a CD32, the incoherent complaints I got from a couple eBay users was helpful to populate my blocked buyer list :lol:

[stefcep2]

redrumloa wrote:
@stefcep2

You are 100% correct, except that I know it well alright. I'm just not your typical retailer in that I don't care about venting on a forum :-)

I've had a few buyers lately claim their item is DOA. When I aplogize and tell them return it and I will send them a working item after I get theirs back and verify the problem, they dissapear. Seems to be exactly what Plaz mentioned, trying to get something for nothing.

Thats whats its all about, unfortunately.  BTW the same thing has happened to me on ebay.  No I'm not a retailer, but been one and it was a real eye-opener at what consumers are really like..

[mikrucio]

hack them into tiny pieces! put them in the boot, and burn the remains at the local tip!

[orb85750]

Plaz wrote:

If I were you, I would try experimenting with FREE shipping on some of your auctions.

That depends on the margin you're making on an item. Here's a very crude, but not unrealistic example. What if I or Red spend $100 on a item. We then turn and sell it for $185. We have to also factor in shipping supplies, shipping cost, ebay fees, paypal fees, maybe insurance and additional options like delivery confirmation or signature deliveries. Now the item has cost us $100 plus maybe another $30 for all those other items (especially if it weighs more than a few pounds when boxed) leaving a margin of $50. Now add in the fact it took a few hours to test the item, clean it up, take photos, arange the ebay listing, pack the item well, and deliver it to a shipper. Now what's your hourly pay rate going to be minus your rent and taxes if you're self employed? $12-15 dollars an hour? A smaller but respectable wage in the US.

If your margin is small, and mine normally is on old equipment, giving away $10-$20 in shipping will drop the gain to below my trouble to deal with it.  My last auction on ebay just 2 weeks ago was like this. My cost was about $14, it then took about 2 hours clean test and pack the item. I sold it for $37 and the shipping cost came to about $16. The buyer complained about shipping cost and wanted me to ship for free. That would have payed me a whopping $3.50 an hour to sell this item. I might as well throw it in the bin and spend my time on some thing else. In the end I found a cheaper shipping option for $11, the buyer paid and all was well, sort of. The buyer then complained the cheaper shipping option was taking to long to arrive and wanted his money back if it didn't arrive by the end of the week. It did, and all was well. I have 4 more or these items, they're going in the bin and ebay can bite me.

Plaz

Set your minimum bid at the true minimum you're willing to accept (or use a reserve, but I personally hate reserve auctions).  The listing fees are not that much higher.  Again, this free shipping idea is an experiment.  It may or may not work out, but you won't know until you try.  You'll get a five-star shipping rating, or something very close.

[stanlong]

I think $11.75US a bit steep for shipping a floppy disc is abit steep

[fatboy]

I'm not a power seller but I can appreciate the 'issue' with P+P?

Up until recently I had 100% positive feedback as seller but one guy left me a Negative over my postage charge!!!

The P+P was CLEARLY stated in the auction, so why did he bid, win AND pay, if he felt the postage was too high?

He simply left negative feedback without contacting me first.
I pointed out to him that the cost is to cover Postage AND Packaging, not just the actual cost of the stamp!

When things sell at very low prices on ebay (which they often do!), is it not fair for the seller to at least cover the cost of selling the item at a low price...blame ebay for their excessive charges!

I mostly now use ebid http://uk.ebid.net/stores/Zoogamer to sell low value items....on this site I can actually afford to sell things at 99p!!!!...which aren't worth putting on ebay.

As this is just a 'hobby' I don't need the exposure of ebay, so most stuff goes on ebid...MUCH cheaper and fairer

[dannyp1]

A lot of people seem to be missing the fact that the free shipping on ebay is just a ploy for EBay to make more money themselves on the same item.  Nothing is truly shipped for free.  The cost of shipping is just included in the amount charged for the item, which raises it's listing value and selling value.  EBay makes more money for higher listing fees and higher sold item price.  The end result is the seller making less money on the same item.

This is the same reason they limited the amount you can charge for CD's, records, and books.  It's not to protect the buyer as they claim, just a way for them to make more money on listing fees and selling fees.

Dan :madashell: